Arrested!
by BlueCorpse
Summary: Sorry for going AWOL. No excuses, just bad at writing. This is a story wherein Twilight is arrested on unknown charges. I hope you enjoy it.
1. Arrested!

'Dear Twilight Sparkle,

You are under arrest, by the decree of H.R.H. Princess Celestia.

Please remain at your home for the next twenty-four hours.

During that time an entourage of royal guards will arrive to escort you to Canterlot whereupon your trial will take place.

The nature of the charges brought against you will be explained more fully at a later venture. Your co-operation is recommended.'

There was no signature on the letter, but the royal stamp on the envelope was all that was needed. It had been Spike who had actually first seen the letter; it had come in along with the rest of the regular post that morning. It had take Twilight a few minutes to understand what it was she was actually reading, and then quite a few more to make sure that this wasn't one of R.D.'s practical jokes. After her suspicion gave way into plain old confusion, Twilight had Spike call the rest of her friends over to the library to discuss the letter. After Twilight read it out to them, Fluttershy fainted. Spike lifted her onto Twilight's bed and then the discussion began.

"Well, dear, it must have been a mistake, no?" Rarity was the first to speak. "I mean, there surely must be more than one Twilight Sparkle in all of Equestria, and they just sent the letter to the wrong mare, that's all."

"Yeah, Twilight, you need to chill out. Stop freaking out over this kind of stuff, y'know?" Rainbow Dash was second.

"I think breaking the law is worth freaking out about, Rainbow Dash! In any case, this might be a mistake, but - what if it's not?" Twilight responded.

"It isn't!" replied R.D.

"But what if! I mean, I don't remember doing anything bad, a-and certainly nothing illegal, but that doesn't mean I didn't break a law accidentally!"

"Now, how does that make one lick of sense? How can ya break a law by accident?" was Applejack's first interjection.

"There's lots of laws I don't know about! There might be laws against anything... there could be laws against wearing glasses, for all I know."

"In that case, why haven't I received a letter? A fashionista like me wears glasses everyday, you know."

"Well... I don't know. My point is... it could be anything."

Rainbow Dash piped up again.

"Look. Even if that dumb letter's meant for you, and it isn't, and even if you did break the law, and you didn't, then don't worry about it. I know the perfect way to get out of any trouble."

"Really?! Tell me, please -"

At that moment they were interrupted by a loud knock on the door.

"Twilight Sparkle, please open this door."

Twilight was shocked, but after a moment regained her composure, went to the door, and opened it, revealing two burly guards dressed in the traditional elaborate armour. Their expressions were neutral.

"Twilight Sparkle, please come with us."

So soon? Twilight quickly glanced over to R.D., Rarity, Applejack and Spike and asked the guards,

"Can I say goodbye to my friends first?"

The guard who had not previously spoken spoke.

"**No**."

Each guard then grabbed hold of one of Twilight's legs and began to roughly drag her to the carriage a short distance behind them, where a further two guards were waiting to lift it into the air.

"Hey! HEY! Get off of me, now! Help!"

Everyone except Fluttershy rushed out of the library.

'What do you brutes think you're doing?! Let go of her, this instant!'

'I've got half a mind to give you royal idiots a beating!'

'What in tarnation is goin' on...'

'_Twilight!_'

The guards neither acknowledged or responded to any of these outbursts, continuing only to drag Twilight towards their carriage. When they got there, they cleanly lifted Twilight off the ground and over into the carriage. Before anyone really had a chance to react, the carriage began to ascend into the deep blue sky of the summer afternoon. Twilight looked over the side, down at her friends slowly becoming nothing more than coloured dots and then - nothing at all. Tears of pain, confusion, and something inexpressible ran down her face and fell to the earth below her. For her friends on the ground, it might have appeared as if it were raining, for a single moment, in that beautiful summer's day.


	2. Imprisoned!

Soon after the journey had begun, one of the guard ponies in the carriage had blindfolded Twilight. This disturbed her perception of the passage of time, leaving her slightly disorientated. It also meant that once Twilight and her entourage were on the ground, she would be unable to know where exactly the prison she was being held in was. All she knew was that at some point all the guards but one had disappeared, with the final one removing the blindfold and pushing her into a cell before leaving. Twilight's first thought was that she had to discover what was going on - and more specifically, the charges brought against her. However, it can be strangely tiring to go through such a stressful experience. As such, Twilight curled up into a small ball on a rag in the corner of the cell and slept, dreaming of nothing.

After having woken, Twilight surveyed her surroundings. Her cell was empty, besides from her sleeping-rag and a candle in a metal cage on the wall. The walls were smooth and continuous, with no fault-lines or cracks anywhere. The door to her cell was cast iron, with a small rectangular hole at eye-level to allow guards to check on the prisoner. When Twilight went over to the door and looked out, she saw nothing except another wall at the opposite side of the hallway. By this time Twilight was fully awake and the gravity of her situation had begun to take its toll on her. Her mind ran in circles, starting at 'Why am I here?', moving on to 'This must be a mistake...', and then to 'I've done nothing wrong!' which lead back to the start. Her usually rational mind was failing her when she needed it the most. The only thing that snapped her out of it was the sudden noise of a door somewhere close by opening.

Twilight pushed her mouth against the hole and asked in a cracking voice,

"Whoever that is, please help me! Help, help!"

After a few seconds she heard hoofsteps coming closer, and then the voice of what must be a guard.

"Quiet. It's not your turn yet."

"Please, you have to tell me what's going on! I shouldn't be here! Someone's made a terrible mistake!"

There was no response. The guard walked on until he was out of earshot.

Defeated, Twilight slumped down with her back to the door. She held her head in her hooves and tried to think of what to do, but her mind was blank. After a few minutes, a voice, little more than a whisper, come through the door.

"Hey... hey! Is that Twilight?"

"Who's that? Who are you?"

"Did they get you too?"

"...Yes. I think I recognise your voice... are you -"

"It doesn't matter who I am. Twilight, all you need to know is that they're going to put you on trial."

"For what?! I've done nothing!"

"Yes, well... none of us know why we're here. I just know that there'll be a trial."

"When? Where? Please, tell me what's going on."

"I don't know. It could be in a minute, an hour or a day. I've been here for weeks. Look, there's something important you should know."

"What?"

"I think there's a plot -"

However, the nameless stranger was interrupted by the appearance of a guard, possibly the same one from earlier, who went to Twilight's door and opened it. As he did so, Twilight scrambled across the floor in fear until she was against the opposite wall. This time the guard wasted no time with talk, and instead picked Twilight up, forced a blindfold and gag onto her, draped her across his back and then dragged her out of the cell, kicking and trying to scream.


	3. Questioned!

After a while the guard stopped and placed Twilight on the floor. She pulled the gag off her mouth and asked,

"Where am I? Where am I?!"

No reply.

She then took off her blindfold and found herself in the center of a large room, almost as large as the town hall back home in Ponyville, surrounded by about a hundred ponies who were all watching her with disinterest. There were earth ponies, pegasi and unicorns, of every imaginable colour, all seated in escalating rows that backed to the two side-walls of the room. The center of the room, where Twilight stood, was completely empty except for a chair in the center, which Twilight nervously sat in, not knowing what else to do. In front of Twilight there were three separate platforms, all empty, with the one in the center being slightly elevated.

Nopony moved. After a minute of sitting in the chair, Twilight turned to her left. The ponies there were chatting among themselves quietly. They seemed bored. Feeling a strange trepidation for interrupting them, Twilight cleared her throat and asked nopony in particular,

"Excuse me. Is this my trial?"

None of the spectators seemed to notice, besides a few who gave Twilight quick glances of what seemed to be the quiet disgust usually shown to harmless vermin. She felt as if she had violated some unspoken rule, and that this would weigh negatively in her trial. She decided to abstain from further action.

After another bout of indeterminable waiting - there were no clocks in the room, no clocks at all - the door behind Twilight, which she had presumably entered through, opened. Twilight almost turned to face the new arrival before deciding against it. She did not want to do anything else that could sink her case before it began. It turned out that there was not one, but two arrivals, who went forwards to reach the platforms at the front of the hall. One was an elderly colt, pegasi, a dignified shade of brown, who took to the elevated center platform. The other took the right platform, to his side. It was - Princess Luna? Twilight audibly gasped when she saw Luna walking to the platform. This caused the elderly pegasi - the judge? if this was a trial then he must be the judge - to turn and give a quick glance of shock, or anger, before readying himself, clearing his throat, and speaking to the crowd.

"We have begun."

The mass of ponies sitting on both sides of the room jolted out of their idleness as one, becoming fully aware of their surroundings for what seemed like the first time. Seeing that he had their attention, the judge continued, this time speaking directly to Twilight.

"Twilight Sparkle. Do you or do you not plead guilty to your crime?"

During the long periods of waiting, Twilight had thought over what she would say at this point. The appearance of Princess Luna had bolstered her confidence greatly, as she was the first familiar face Twilight had seen throughout this entire ideal. She was sure that the Princess would come to her rescue in one way or another.

"No, on account of not being aware of it."

A murmur went through the crowd.

"So!" the judge spoke, "You do not only deny responsibility for your crime, you deny your actions were a crime at all? Such insolence!"

"Insolence, insolence." The crowd echoed in agreement.

"No, no! I might have done something wrong, but I didn't know it. I didn't mean to break the law."

"That is no excuse. Does a tree falling with nopony to hear it make a sound?"

The crowd murmured again, this time in disagreement.

"Of course! You are guilty regardless of intention."

"Guilty of what? Guilty of _what? What did I do?_"

"The crime itself is irrelevant! All that matters is that it has been committed."

"Then prove it! Prove I did whatever you think I did!"

At this, the judge turned to Luna and nodded. In turn, she spoke, in the manner of an actor reading a well-rehearsed line. Twilight held her breath.

"I, Royal Princess of Equestria, give my personal testimony as to witnessing this crime first-hand, and as to it being perpetrated by none other than Twilight Sparkle."

"Princess?..."

Luna had looked straight ahead during her speech. Twilight attempted to catch Luna's eye, to try and see if there was an explanation of her betrayal in them, but Luna avoided her gaze.

The judge spoke again.

"The Princesses' testimony is unquestionable. You must be guilty!"

Twilight would have ordinarily tried to counter this comment, but Luna's apparent betrayal had thrown her off her feet. She let her head sag slightly. Upon seeing her, Twilight had been certain that the Princess would be her life-line in this situation, who would use her great power to save to her friend - if Twilight was indeed her friend.

"You have nothing to say? You have no arguments to prove your innocence?"

Twilight shook her head limply.

"Then the jury shall begin their deliberation."

The crowds turned in on themselves, and the noise of conversation began to fill the room. As the crowds conversed, Twilight noticed Luna turn to the judge and whisper something into his ear, which prompted a nod. The Princess then left the platform and made for the door at the end of the hall. Twilight kept her eyes on the ground in resignation, so it shocked her when the Princess drew close to her suddenly and whispered six words to her.

"Do not worry. Help is coming."

Before Twilight could react, the Princess had already left. Confusion, hope, worry - all these and more cycled around Twilight's mind, making her dizzy. She was still lost in the implications of the Princesses' words when the ponies on the left and right sides of the court stood up.

"What is your verdict?" spoke the judge to the right side.

"_Guilty!_"they spoke in unison.

"And yours?" he spoke, now to the left side.

"_Innocent!_"

Innocent?! Was this the help that Luna had spoken of?

This turn of events took the judge by surprise.

"Innocent? Innocent!? Well, well, well... it appears that the jury is evenly split."

Her confidence returned, Twilight spoke.

"I'm free?"

"No. The new trial will be tomorrow. Guards, return her to her cell."


	4. Rescued!

After being unceremoniously dumped in her cell, Twilight decided to spend the time until her next trial thinking over her situation.

"I know that Princess Luna is on my side... so I probably didn't do anything wrong. This really could be one huge mistake."

Twilight suddenly remembered the stranger in the cell next to her. Wondering if they had undergone a similar experience, she tried calling out to them.

"Hey! Are you there?"

...

"...I guess not," she thought to herself. "I wonder if the Princess is helping me because of how I helped deal with Nightmare Moon? Yes, that must be it! I know what I have to do - the Princess got me another trial, and I can't waste it."

The path to freedom now clear to her, Twilight settled down for as much sleep as she could get. Again, she had no dreams, or at least any that she could remember.

This sleep was interrupted, however, by a soft knock on the cell door. Thinking that it was a guard coming to take her to the courtroom, Twilight looked out the door's peephole. Instead of a guard, she found two unicorns dressed in black cloaks. One of them said,

"We are going to open the door. Pretend we are guards taking you somewhere and we will rescue you. Do not ask any questions."

"Nevermind the trial, this must what Luna meant," Twilight thought. "I'm saved!"

She nodded silently and stepped back from the door as it opened. She then stepped outside and began to walk with the two agents of Luna, one of them on each side of her. It appeared that Twilight's cell was only one in a long stretch of them, with numbers rising into the hundreds. The walls of the corridor were cold, and the air slightly moist, giving the impression that they were underground. This was given further evidence when they ascended a long set of stairs, marked periodically by wax candles, and found themselves at a door which opened onto one of the many courtyards in the royal palace. It was the middle of the night, and it was raining steadily out of an overcast sky. As Twilight kept following Luna's agents, the cold rain made her realise that she hadn't eaten in over a day, since before she had received her letter of arrest. Her hunger was making her feel a little weak. Hopefully she would be returning to her library soon, and meeting her friends again. She wondered how Spike was doing without her - maybe Rarity had taken him in? Yes, everything would be fine. Of that, Twilight was certain.

As the group silently passed through the massive gardens of the royal estate, Twilight noticed something. Having a great deal of experience with the estate, it seemed as if she was being taken _away _from the front gates. She decided to bring this up with her rescuers.

"Shh. No questions."

He was right, of course. There would be guards at the front gates, and there could be a secret escape route at the back.

However, Luna's agents then took a strange turn, away from the back gates, and towards what had always been an empty plain of grass. The freezing rain was causing Twilight to shiver badly, and her hooves were covered with mud. A realisation came to her, à propos of nothing: if these ponies were under Luna's command, wouldn't she be able to get them a set of guard armour, to help them remain undetected? A tight ball of tension began to form in Twilight's chest. If they weren't guards, they could be dangerous. If she ran, quickly, with no warning, she could probably lose them and find a way out of the royal grounds on her own -

But at that moment she saw something that prevented her from running, prevented her from moving at all, such was its horror. They had just turned the corner the led them onto the empty field of grass they were heading towards. Except, the field was not empty. It had changed since the last time Twilight had been here. Something had been constructed.

"Is that... is that, a - a - guillotine?"


	5. Executed!

A raw, primal fear filled her. Over the past few hours the situation had seemed so strange, so absurd, that it was almost as if it was not real. Now, the stark image of the wood pillars, the harsh blade silhouetted by the pale moonlight - all of this hit her at once and it barely left her standing. She twisted on the spot, like an animal caught in a trap, and tried to run. But it was too late. They were already on her. Not only the two that she had walked with, but more, coming out of shadows and from behind corners, some grabbing her limbs, others simply standing to the side and watching. It wasn't necessary. One of them could have taken her, she was so defeated. Knowing that all of the hope that she had been given was manufactured had ruined her, and she could no longer fight, even if she wanted to.

They held her down in front of the guillotine. One of the hooded figures came up to her and revealed itself to be the judge from earlier. His expression was neutral, as if this were routine. He intoned, dryly:

"You have attempted to escape your incarceration. This is undeniable proof of guilt. What say the jury?"

A hooded figure to his right side spoke.

"Guilty."

Princess Luna took down the hood of her cloak. There was a dull horror in Twilight, but it was so faint that it was if it was happening to someone else entirely.

"And what say the guilty?"

"..."

The judge gave a wry smile.

"Yes, I would have thought so. Shall we begin?"

The process was remarkably efficient, taking only a few minutes. Twilight was in position, her neck bared. Her breath came out as a dense fog. She was perfectly calm. The hooded figures were gathered all around. Some were talking amongst themselves, others admiring the flowers of the field. The Princess herself was to give the order. First, though, she came in close to Twilight, and whispered something.

"This is what you get for trying to stop me. Your friends are next."

Twilight did not respond. Luna stood up and turned to the judge, who was serving as the executioner.

"On my count... three. Two. Wait -"

There was a sudden scream from off to the side, outside of Twilight's field of vision, followed by the soft bang of a body hitting wet wood. In an instant, the dark field was illuminated by torches as bright as the burning sun. What had once been silence was now a fractured texture of different noises, all different in volume and pitch: there were yells of anger, yelps of pain, snarls of hatred, the moans of misery and the cries of confusion, all coming together to form a horrifying sound that hurt Twilight's ears. She had not moved during all of this, only now realising that she was not dead. She dragged herself out of the guillotine and laid silently, willing her body the energy to get up and run. She turned her head and saw the corpse of the judge, the trickles of blood running down his face giving the impression of a broken jigsaw.

Twilight began to faint, but before she did, she felt strong hooves curl around her body and lift her off the ground.


	6. End

"I'm not dead..." was the first thought.

"Then what am I?" was the second.

"Where am I?" was the last one before Twilight opened her eyes.

She was in a bed, and instantly realised that her experience had been nothing but a dream. She sighed and was peaceful. However, this illusion was shattered when she looked around, and found that she was not at home in her library, but instead in one bed out of a row of many. There were large windows in front of her, through which billowing golden light shone and warmed her face. The room was empty. Finding that she was able to move, Twilight got out of the bed and walked to the window. With a start, she realised that it overlooked the field where she had spent the previous night. Now, however, it truly was empty, with only green grass remaining. As Twilight looked on with confusion, she heard a warm, gentle voice speak to her.

"Ah... you're awake, I see?"

"Is Princess Luna... OK?"

Twilight and Celestia were meandering slowly through the site of the battle the previous night. Most traces of it had been removed, but if you looked closely you could still see blood caked into the soil.

"She will be. Eventually. Don't worry about her, dear Twilight."

"There's still a lot of things I don't understand, Princess. Like, _why_ exactly did Luna -"

"She did not."

Twilight paused for a second to think on this.

"_Her_? But, I thought that when we all used the elements of harmony she was - was..."

"Some things can never really be stopped, Twilight, just subdued."

"Huh... I'm just glad you got there in time. Otherwise, my friends would have been next, wouldn't they?"

"Probably so."

"I'd like to see them, Princess."

Upon arriving in Ponyville, Twilight and Celestia found Rarity tending to the library with Spike. She quickly called over the rest of the group - with one exception.

"Wait, where's Rainbow Dash?"

"Ah, uh, well, about that... she got took away too, jus' after you did," said Applejack.

"Oh, I feel terrified just thinking about it! What if they had come for me instead? I wouldn't have been as brave as you, Twilight..." said Fluttershy.

"You see, when we heard about that frightful battle in Canterlot, we had hoped that our dear Rainbow Dash would come back along with you."

"You're right - I just remembered!" said Twilight. "When they had me locked up, there was someone in the cell next to me, and I thought I recognised their voice, but before I could ask if it was Rainbow Dash they had me taken away - that must be her! They would have brought the rest of you in as well, if it weren't for Princess Celestia."

"I think it is time for me to return home, my friends. I will see to it that Rainbow Dash is released as soon as possible. You will not have to wait long, I assure you."

And so Celestia left the library and began her ascent into the sky.

A few moments later, as the group of friends were settling down again, Spike rushed down the stairs and yelled,

"Hey, Twilight! While you were gone, I had a look at that letter again."

"Spiiike! I don't wanna look at thing as long as I live, can't you get rid of it?"

"No, look! Here, at the bottom - it was Celestia who signed it!"


End file.
